Friday, January 20, 2006

Halter Spokesman Says He's Running for Gov.

Bud Jackson, a spokesman for Democrat Bill Halter, says that Halter is running for the Democratic Nomination for Governor. A formal announcement is expected within a week. Halter is a technology consultant who held an administrative post in the Clinton administration.

5 Comments:

The recent addition of Harold Gist, formerly of West Memphis, to Halter's exploratory committee earlier this week may have been enough to give the green light to the Halter campaign. Gist was in charge of turning out the black vote in Bill Clinton's campaigns, a key group in a democratic primary.

Halter brings a $1.25 million war chest to the campaign- though half of that is his own money. AG Mike Bebee has raised $2.4 million.

Republican candidate Asa Hutchinson could profit from this news in two ways. He may be able to keep his own million dollar war chest largely intact. The two Democrats will likely exhaust theirs. A financially strapped Democratic party will not be in a position to give their candidates much finnancial help. The Republican party will be able to give their candidates significant amounts of cash.

The entry of Halter in the race puts Hutchinson on an equal, or likely even superior footing in terms of dollars available for the general election campaign.

The second critical way in which this event could help Asa is that Bebee is no longer free to spend all his time and energy going after independents or nominal Republicans. Bebee was in the process of "turning the flank" of Asa's line by lining up support from business and NWA poultry interests that usually vote Republican. Now Halter threatens to turn Bebee's flank by going after the Democratic base. Bebee can no longer afford to spend all his time and energy on independents and nominal republicans. He must tend to his own base, lest he lose the primary.